During suturing procedures for closing wounds, a surgeon must bring the wound edges into close proximity to each other to facilitate the placement of the suture. Either stitches or staples typically serve as the suture. Likewise, during plastic and reconstructive surgery, the skin must be stretched so that the location of the incision edges can be approximated before any excess skin is removed or excised. Excess skin is typically removed with a cutting instrument such as a scalpel or surgical scissors. This skin manipulation, accomplished with the use of forceps, must be performed with extreme care in order to avoid damage to the skin which may cause the formation of scar tissue.
The high elasticity of human tissue makes current methods of stabilizing of wound edges utilizing standard tissue grasping forceps inadequate. Standard forceps have only one grasp site and tend to deform tissue when tension is applied by the forceps to the tissue. This deformation makes it difficult to excise the tissue to obtain parallel wound edges. This problem is typically alleviated by using two separate forceps to grasp the skin at two distinct sites. The use of two forceps provide for uniform skin stretching while allowing the application of tension between the grasping sites. This tension between the grasping sites enables the surgeon to hold the wound edge in a parallel orientation with respect to the opposite wound edge. In order to properly spread the tissue, an assistant is required to help the surgeon perform the procedure because the surgeon must have at least one hand free. The surgeon uses the free hand to apply a suture or to cut excess tissue away with a cutting instrument.